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Secret Weapons of The Shogunate: Mobile Fortress
Fortresses and garrisons, the defensive infrastructure of empires, are expensive and static. Should the enemy prove cunning and dishonorable enough to avoid them they can become nearly useless (see Maginot Line ). The great Gaijin General Patton famously declared them monuments to man's folly. If mountains and oceans can be overcome, surely anything built by man may be also. Even the Great Wall failed to halt the Great Khan! While on leave one day, after a night of drinking, gambling, carousing, playing Shogi and watching movies, General HongKongPhooey contemplated this problem, fell asleep, had a strange dream and awoke with an imaginative solution. Instead of building fortresses where you think the enemy might appear, make them so they could move to where the enemy actually will be! And thus was born the idea of the Mobile Fortress (Ugoku Shiro). But how could this innovative concept be turned into a practical reality? General Phooey realized almost instantly that the Shogunate already had the basis for such a weapon in the form of the Akuma. So all one had to do was simply take an Akuma chassis and, instead of a battleship turret, mount a keep (Yagura or Dojon) atop it. With the concept and implementation down, now came the challenging phase...actually making the Mobile Fortress a reality. General Phooey presented his idea first to the two that he trusted most- His Imperial Majesty Himself and his leader Masaharta. Both were very positive and supportive toward the idea. But the Empire lacked the resources to begin production at the time. And besides that, the Imperial High Command and General Staff would take some more convincing So General Phooey put aside the notion for the time being and again immersed himself in his other duties. But he never forgot his Mobile Fortress, and once he became a Field Marshal and leader of the Shogunate Empire he at last had the power and resources to make it happen. Then, just as the blueprints were being readied for the factories and contractor arrangements were being made, the world suddenly ended and a terrible, eternal peace broke out. The Mobile Fortress would never see the light of the Rising Sun and Phooey would never see his dream realized. Statistics Class: Heavy vehicle Units: 1 Defense: Heavy armor Sight: 60 Health: 600 Mobility: 3 Damage: 200-300 Range: 0-36 Costs: 16500 gold Deploy= 8E 6C Weapon: Concussive Abilities: Primary-Fortress Barrage 1 turn recharge Secondary-Heals/repairs friendly units within a large radius 1 turn recharge Passive-Units may deploy around Mobile Fortress Description Built, as mentioned, on an Akuma chassis, the Mobile Fortress would have been essentially an Akuma with a keep or yagura instead of a battleship turret on top. Consequently, many of its basic stats are identical. But its abilities would have differed significantly from its older brother. The Mobile Fort's primary attack would have been a fortress barrage, similar to the African Warlord's Overlord only more powerful and with greater range and a one turn recharge. Its secondary ability would heal and repair all friendly units within its action radius. Similar to the Soviet People's Truck, but with more points healed over a wider area and without the attack bonuses and also with a one turn recharge. The Mobile Fortress' passive ability would have allowed commanders to deploy friendly units within its action radius, making it a mobile, heavily armed and armored, spawn point as well. These abilities would help to make up for the Empire's lack of support, healing/repair and deployment units. All this would have come at a high cost, however, both to purchase and deploy. Commanders, especially novice ones, would have had to make a hard choice between the Mobile Fort or the more offensive minded Akuma. It would also have sat very high atop the SE's tech tree, near or next to its older brother. So researching this beast would not have been cheap either. However, given its versatility and potential to turn the tide of battle, the Mobile Fortress would have no doubt proven a formidable and popular addition to the Imperial arsenal.